The Shadowlands is set on a distant planet in the future that has been colonized from Old Earth. Its protagonist, Stephen Hardy, is an adventurer and scholar exiled from his native Philos to patrol the wastelands beyond which lie the breakaway civilization of Hedon. When Hardy rescues a teenage boy and his girl lover from the wastes, and finds himself ethically unable to fulfill his duty and see them safely back to his homeland, Philos, his life is changed forever. This sci-fi tale has existentialist philosophic and Taoist and Zen religious undertones and a low-tech slant.